Verbatim report of proceedings

Wednesday, 30 May 2018 - Strasbourg

14.9. Annual report on the implementation of the Common Commercial Policy (A8-0166/2018 - Tokia Saïfi)

Dichiarazioni di voto orali

  Petras Auštrevičius (ALDE). – Mr President, in the past few years the trade environment in the world has changed dramatically. We see strong protectionist tendencies enforced by the United States, insecurity caused by Brexit and growing trade with Asian countries. This means that consistent monitoring and assessment of the policy should become an integral part of the EU trade strategy so that the best trading opportunities can be created.

I support the report’s view that the EU, as the biggest trading power, should continue to pursue common trade policy which reflects the interests of the EU citizens and companies and at the same time guarantees a fair playing field for the partner countries.

Finally, the trade agreement should always adhere to the European values, ensuring responsible management and value chain, and their implementation and negotiations should become much more transparent.

  Andrejs Mamikins (S&D). – Mr President, our common commercial policy is the main instrument to fight against the challenges of globalisation. In a context where China and the US rearrange the trade order according to their individual agenda, we need to be stronger and more united. The withdrawal of the USA from the international trade and multilateral system is a threat to democracy. We need to create commercial security mechanisms to protect our businesses and industries from such shifts.

I appreciate the spirit of this report and the assessment of the achievements that have been made, and I have of course voted in favour. I regret, however, seeing that European companies are not making sufficient use of the benefits available under free-trade areas. The reason for this is lack of open data and expert support. This is why I support the call to make the implementation of the common commercial policy more transparent, particularly during the negotiation of trade agreements.